What my craft cupboard really looks like

A complete and utter disaster of me pulling out all of our craft supplies hoping that Leah will do something other than squeeze all of the white glue into giant piles all over her paper. (You’ll see below that I’ve stocked up on white glue).

So this morning Leah and I took a trip to the dollar store to restock her supplies. Which was great fun for us, except we have so many random things already and no real method of storing them.

This is what our craft cupboard looked like this morning (keep in mind that most of the crafts were on the table already at the time of taking this picture):

I’m not the most organized person, but I knew I could do better. I picked up a couple of small plastic tubs at the dollar store to help out. I could have been even more organized, except the biggest bin I bought didn’t fit in the cupboard. (Mental note, next time use a measuring tape and not a random “it goes to here on the length of my arm” approach).

So I emptied out the cupboard to start from scratch. If you are wondering why there is a corningware dish on the top shelf, it’s because I need to return it to a friend who made us a casserole back when Kate was born… 9 months ago. Imagine the space I’ll gain when I actually remember to give it back.

Sadly, emptying the cupboard made me end up with this disaster on the kitchen table:

Which probably would have upset me before I had kids, but giant disasters seem to be par for the course lately. Is it bad that I’m saving that Pringles container because I feel like it could come in handy some day?

On a side note, Jason sent me a link to this website about the 10 most unrecognizable post baby parts yesterday (gee thanks!) which had me laughing out loud after the first point. You are probably wondering how that is related, but it links back to the writer’s blog which is hilarious. In part of it, she showcases messy houses to make regular moms feel better about their own messes. Take a look if you need a pick me up: My Life and Kids Messy House Edition.

So anyway, I had just made this giant mess and wouldn’t you know it, that was the exact moment that Leah woke up from her nap, early today, ready to play with all the new goodies we bought as I was trying to organize them. Super.

I am by no means an organizing queen, (quite the contrary, you should see my closet…) I just like to do the minimum amount of work to make things functional. I’m going to share what I have and what my craft cupboard really looks like and maybe it will help spark some ideas for you.

Paint – This bin scares me a little bit. I don’t even like markers, let alone paint. This is the first time I bought paint for Leah, so we’ll see how it goes when I build up the courage to let her use it.

Glue – Here you can see my stockpile of white glue, which we go through like crazy! (thank goodness for the dollar store!) This time I also bought glue sticks, hoping that she’ll attempt to actually glue things instead of just squeezing glue onto the page.

Glitter glue – Speaking of squeezing glue onto the page, I thought she enjoyed white glue, but she LOVES squeezing the coloured glitter glue. So it gets its own dedicated bin!

Random things – this tub has cotton balls, bingo dabbers (surprisingly awesome for toddler crafts!), my paper punches, crayons, foam letters, stamps, plastic containers that I plan to use for more supplies at some point, and more white glue.

Craft supplies – It’s too bad the zip lock bags cover up what everything is here, but this is my favourite bin. It has colourful popsicle sticks, tissue paper squares, googly eyes, feathers, pom poms, pipe cleaners, foam pieces, and what every kid needs for their crafts, a small bag of macaroni.

Table cloth – You can see the table cloth on the top shelf in the photo below. I think it is the most essential item for making crafts with a toddler! It’s just a vinyl (or something) table cloth from the dollar store to protect our table and I definitely recommend getting one!

So after I organized all the bins, the cupboard looked like this:

I can actually see everything and access it without accidentally dropping things all over the floor, so I’m much happier with it. I know it’s not going to win any awards for organization, but that’s how it goes in real life. It’s one little project at a time!

Comments

I am a divorced single mom of 2 with a 50+ hour job a week. My craft cupboard is actually not a cupboard at all…its some things here, some there and than scrambling to find the glue gun when I need it. I do have everything in plastic bins, just not all the bins in one place. I like this idea. Thanks!